On 13 January 1945, an advancing Soviet troop saw a man waiting for it in front of a house with a large Swedish flag above the door. In fluent Russian, Raoul Wallenberg explained to a surprised Russian sergeant that he was Swedish chargé d'affaires for the Russian-liberated parts of Budapest. Wallenberg requested, and was given permission to visit the Soviet military headquarters in the city of Debrecen east of Budapest.

On his way out of the capital on 17 January-with Soviet escort-Wallenberg and his driver, Vilmos Langfelder, stopped at the "Swedish houses" to say good-bye to his friends. To one of his colleagues, Dr. Ernö Petö, Wallenberg said that he was not certain whether he was going to be the Soviet's guest or their prisoner. Raoul thought that he would be back within eight days. He has been missing ever since.

Whether Raoul Wallenberg is alive or not is uncertain. The Russians claim that he died in Russian captivity on 17 July 1947. A number of testimonies indicate, however, that he was alive thereafter and that he still could be alive.

Before elaborating on Raoul's captivity in the Soviet Union, two issues should be clarified. First, why did Raoul wish to establish contact with the Soviets in Debrecen? Secondly, why did the Soviets arrest Raoul?

Turning to the first question, Raoul was in the process of preparing a detailed financial support plan for the surviving Jews. Due to the likelihood of Soviet influence over Budapest once the Nazis surrendered, Raoul believed it important to explain the plan to the Soviets and, if possible, obtain their endorsement.

As then regards the Soviets' arrest of Raoul, it is likely that they found it unimaginable that Raoul's principal purpose for risking his own life to rescue the Hungarian Jews was compassion. Probably, they believed him to be an American spy, working with a hidden agenda. Furthermore, Raoul's contacts with the Germans arouse suspicion.

Raoul and his driver Langfelder never returned from Debrecen. According to reliable testimonies they were arrested and sent to Moscow. They were arrested by NKVD, the organisation that later changed its name to KGB. Raoul and Langfelder were placed in separate cells in the Lubjanka prison according to eye witnesses.

Raoul was not the only diplomat in Budapest that aroused Soviet suspicion. The Swiss legation had also run extensive rescue operations for the Hungarian Jewish population. The Russians arrested a secretary of their legation together with a clerk and sent them to the Soviet Union. The Swiss succeeded, however, in getting them exchanged against Soviet citizens detained in Switzerland.

It would take some time before authorities in Stockholm became concerned about Raoul's disappearance. In a letter to the Swedish ambassador in Moscow, the Russian Vice Foreign Minister Dekanosov declared that "the Russian military authorities had taken measures and steps to protect Wallenberg and his belongings."

The Swedes, of course, expected Raoul to come home soon. When nothing happened, Raoul's mother, Maj von Dardel, contacted the Russian ambassador in Stockholm, Aleksandra Kollontaj, who explained that she could be calm, since her son was well kept in Soviet Union. To the Swedish Foreign Minister Christian Günther's wife, Aleksandra Kollontaj said at the same time that it would be best for Wallenberg if the Swedish government wouldn't stir things up.

On March 8, 1945, the Soviet-controlled Hungarian radio announced that Raoul Wallenberg had been murdered on his way to Debrecen, probably by Hungarian Nazis or Gestapo agents. This created a certain passiveness within the Swedish government. Foreign Minister Östen Undén and Sweden's ambassador in the Soviet Union presumed that Wallenberg was dead. In most places, however, the radio message wasn't taken seriously.

Many people have drawn the conclusion that Sweden had an opportunity to negotiate for Wallenberg's release after the war, but that the Swedish side missed the chance.

From 1965 there is a speech from Sweden's Prime Minister at the time, Tage Erlander, which is included in a collection of documents regarding the research around Raoul Wallenberg. Erlander concluded that all efforts that had been taken shortly after the war were without results. In fact, the Soviet authorities had even denied knowledge of Wallenberg. Between 1947 and 1951 nothing new occurred. But when foreign prisoners started to be released from Russian jails many testimonies came regarding Raoul Wallenberg's fate after January 1945.

In April 1956, Prime Minister Tage Erlander traveled to Moscow where he met the Soviet representatives Chrusjtjev, Bulganin and Molotov. These men promised to re-investigate what had happened to Raoul Wallenberg.

On February 6, 1957, the Russians announced that they had made extensive investigations and found a document most likely regarding Raoul Wallenberg. In the hand-written document it was stated that "the for you familiar prisoner Wallenberg passed away this night in his cell." The document was dated July 17, 1947, and signed Smoltsov, head of the Lubjanka prison infirmary. The document was addressed to Viktor Abakumov, the minister for state security in the Soviet Union.

The Russians expressed regret in their letter to the Swedes that Smoltsov died in May 1953 and that Abakumov had been executed in connection with cleansing within the security police. The Swedes were very distrustful toward this declaration, but the Russians have to this day stuck to the same statement.

Testimonies from different prisoners who had been in Russian jails after July 1947 tell, in contradiction to the Russian information, that Raoul Wallenberg was imprisoned throughout the 1950's.

In 1965, the Swedish government published a new official report on the Wallenberg case. An earlier white book had been released in 1957. According to the new report, Erlander had done everything in his power to find out the truth about Raoul Wallenberg.

Now the Wallenberg case went into a phase when nothing much happened. The stream of war prisoners from the Soviet Union decreased, and the testimonies were few. At the end of the 70's, the case was brought up again. According to the Swedish foreign office, two very interesting testimonies were the basis for a note to Moscow requesting the case to be reexamined. The answer from the Kremlin was the same as earlier-Raoul Wallenberg died in 1947. On the grounds of additional material considered reliable, Foreign Minister Ola Ullsten sent another request in the beginning of the 80's regarding Raoul Wallenberg to the Russian chief of government Aleksei Kosygin. The reply was the same as usual-Raoul Wallenberg died in 1947.

During the 1980's, interest in Wallenberg grew around the world. In 1981, he became an honorary citizen of the United States, in 1985 in Canada, and in 1986 in Israel. All over the world, many people think he's still alive and demand that he be released from his Russian captivity. In Sweden and other countries-mainly the USA-Raoul Wallenberg associations work endlessly to find answers to what happened Raoul Wallenberg.

In November 2000, Alexander Yakovlev, the head of the presidential commision investigated Wallenbergs's fate, announced that he had been executed in 1947 in the KGB's Lubjanka Prison in Moscow. He said Vladimir Kryuchkov, the former Soviet secret police chief, told him of the shooting in a private conversation. The Russians released another statement in December admitting that Wallenberg was wrongfully arrested on espionage charges in 1945 and held in a Soviet prision for 2.5 years until he died. The statement did not explain why Wallenberg was killed or why the government lied about his death for 55 years, claiming from 1957 to 1991 that he died of a heart attack while under Soviet protection (Washington Post, December 23, 2000).

On January 12, 2001, a joint Russian-Swedish panel released a report that did not reach any conclusion as to Wallenberg's fate. The Russians reverted to the claim that he died of a heart attack in prision in 1947, while the Swede's said that they could not disregard the many evidence that he was still alive after 1947.

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© 2002 The Raoul Wallenberg Committee.
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